"You humans really are interesting. Researching Honkai, learning from Honkai, using Honkai... creating monsters that combine Honkai beasts with humans..."
In a pitch-black basement, a "person" had just woken up from a dose of stabilizer strong enough to knock out an elephant. She was confined in a container that blocked Honkai energy, restrained by a psychiatric straitjacket. She looked at the person who had just entered the basement with a weak, cold sneer.
"Now you're even reaching your hands toward Herrschers and Herrscher Cores. Do you not know the meaning of 'enough'?"
Ignoring the noisy voice of the Eighth Herrscher, Mobius walked to the table, picked up a syringe of a terrifying size, and approached her.
"Humans are a species that learns. Since the first ape-man used a club, humanity has never stopped its pace of learning." Mobius plunged the syringe into the Eighth Herrscher's neck, and the device automatically injected an excessive amount of stabilizer into her body. "Honkai is just a temporary hurdle. Humanity has encountered many crises in its history; one day, we will leap over the Honkai and reach a higher point. Or, to put it more bluntly..."
Mobius sneered at the Eighth Herrscher: "You are nothing more than a stepping stone for humanity."
"Is that so..." On the Eighth Herrscher's drowsy face, a sinister, treacherous smile appeared. "Then let's wait and see... when the person you trust most... becomes..."
"What?" Mobius didn't catch the last part of her sentence before the Eighth Herrscher lost consciousness. Frowning, Mobius pulled the syringe out.
The person you trust most becomes...
...
"Lin, you're starting to act all mysterious now, too."
Spaciel sat in his private office, staring at the storage device in his hand. After a moment, he cut off the internal network, locked the room, and finally plugged the device into his computer.
What loaded were two videos. One was only a few seconds long and was titled "DO NOT WATCH."
Seeing this, Spaciel first clicked on the other video. It began with Lin wearing his helmet. After adjusting the recording equipment, he stood before the camera, and the first words out of his mouth were...
"Spaciel, what I am about to tell you and what I want you to do will go against Fire Moth. So, if you don't want to participate, you can stop watching now."
"Talk about dropping a bomb right at the start," Spaciel said with a helpless, bitter smile. "Don't say things like that to a man about to retire."
But it was precisely Lin opening statement that piqued Spaciel immense interest. What Lin was about to do would conflict with Fire Moth? That didn't sound like something he would normally say.
In the video, Lin waited for thirty seconds before continuing: "Since you've decided to keep watching, it means you intend to participate in my plan."
"This plan originates from my consciousness mutation. After the Sixth Honkai Eruption, my consciousness underwent an irreversible change, frequently traveling to parallel worlds to observe information about the near future."
"And the support for executing this plan is the other video I gave you."
"That is the original copy of the contamination recording I left behind."
...
"Legend has it there was a couple—a young master from a rich family and a commoner girl. They met by chance, and their feelings quickly intensified; a handsome man and a beautiful woman together."
"However, the young master's family opposed the relationship. So, the two of them eloped, moving far away from his home to live in a small city..."
"But after breaking away from the family, their lives became increasingly difficult. They encountered as many hardships as there were wrinkles on a face. Especially after the girl became pregnant, the hardships of life directly crushed them."
"They began to argue. The girl felt the young master was no longer as good as he used to be, while the young master felt the girl had made him leave his original, comfortable life."
"The girl's belly grew larger, but their conflict only escalated. Until one day, when the girl couldn't help but throw a pillow at the young master's face, and he lost his mind."
"He couldn't remember how he struck her or where he got such immense strength. It was only the moment he lifted that eight-month-pregnant woman over his head and threw her out of the fourth-floor window that he regained his senses, but it was too late."
"He watched helplessly as his lover, her face full of disbelief and despair, fell from the height with his flesh and blood. Directly beneath her fall was a power cable. Her neck hit the cable, and under the force of the fall, it was brutally severed."
"What finally hit the ground was the headless corpse of a pregnant woman—flesh and blood flying everywhere, an utterly miserable sight."
"The young master didn't dare look at the body. He fled, returning to his family and using their power to settle the matter."
"He was still the heir to a great family. And that pregnant woman? She was just an ordinary toy in his life."
"Everyone said so, and he gradually accepted it, whether to comfort himself or to go along with others."
"Until one day, he heard a baby crying on the first floor of his villa, accompanied by a thump-thump-thump sound hopping on the floorboards."
"But he lived alone in his villa; where would a baby come from? The young master suddenly realized it was that girl coming for him. It was definitely her, no doubt about it, bringing the unborn child he had murdered with his own hands."
"The young master wanted to run, but the girl was right downstairs. He thought about hiding in the wardrobe, but he'd be found there. He thought about how her head had been cut off, so she shouldn't be able to find someone hidden under the bed. So, he hid under the bed, shivering as he listened to that hopping sound climb the stairs step by step to the second floor."
"Finally, the sound stopped in front of his bedroom. Then... the door opened. The next day, others found the young master dead under the bed."
"Because..."
Vil-V smiled spookily, shining a flashlight onto her face from below. She said eerily: "Because the young master slept in a hammock!"
"..."
The dark room was deathly silent. Everyone stared at her as if reaching a consensus at that moment.
"Um... isn't the ending usually that the girl's head was under his body, so the young master was discovered?" Hua asked curiously.
"That's so boring. A magician is supposed to provide surprises. Isn't it a great twist that he died because he was stupid?"
"...But isn't this supposed to be a ghost story? Besides, a twist for the sake of a twist is just weird."
Lin shook his head. This was their last night there. Elysia had organized a ghost story gathering, and Vil-V had started off with something that was essentially a dark joke.
"Let me tell one," Lin said.